Eric Klinenberg

The great sociologist Kai Erikson has died at 94. Kai is known for his pioneering research on the impact of disasters on communities. His book, *Everything in its Path,* remains a landmark contribution to social science and a model to all of us who work to understand the human costs of crises. RIP

Harvard's right-wing student magazine defends itself from charges that it invoked lines from Hitler by insisting that it did not intentionally use Nazi language, but came upon this "blood and soil" thinking organically. In other words, it's how young conservatives see things now.

Take that in.

It doesn’t matter what I think. Also, none of this would ever happen. But if I had a zillion dollars:

1. Run a “we do hard things” campaign across southern and rust belt states. Invest heavily in local, state and regional social infrastructure. Sponser later hours at a library, build a skate park…

JD Vance brushes off racist texts by adults in Republican group chat as ‘what kids do’ Vice-president downplays messages such as ‘I love Hitler’ in chat by 24 to 35-year-olds to ‘stupid jokes’

For those of you keeping score, 18-22 year-old students calling for an end to slaughter in Gaza are so racist they need to be expelled or deported, but 24-35 year-olds celebrating Hitler, rape, and, um, racism are just kids being kids so chill.

Also, racism is over so no need for Voting Right Act.

Texas Tech Moves to Limit Academic Discussion to 2 Genders

It's a small step from here to prohibiting professors from teaching about climate change, slavery, colonialism, racial discrimination, evolution, and the efficacy of vaccines.

Appeals court strikes down Trump’s tariffs as illegal but leaves them in place Trump’s cornerstone economic policy faced another challenge as a federal appeals court ruled he did not have the authority under an emergency powers act to impose them.

*Court rules that Trump's policies are illegal but allows them to stand anyway* is the best summary of America in 2025 I know.

30 years after Chicago’s deadly 1995 heat wave, sociologist Eric Klinenberg reflects on what went wrong In July 1995, 739 Chicagoans died during a five-day heat wave that shocked the city.

We're approaching the 30th anniversary of the great Chicago heat wave, when 739 people died and the world got a preview of the social and ecological crises that have now become so common.

I spoke with @wbez.org about the significance of the Chicago disaster, and what we've failed to learn.

“Drill baby drill” is a climate policy.

Gutting the EPA and FEMA is a climate policy.

Cutting access to climate and weather data is a climate policy.

Taxing renewables is a climate policy.

Defunding NSF, NOAA, and NASA is climate policy.

Watching families & communities grieve is a consequence.

Arrest a judge on Friday morning. Deport a 2 year-old citizen on Friday afternoon. Attend the pope's funeral on Saturday.

America’s great research universities were not invented in Silicon Valley garages or cooked up by venture capitalists. For centuries, they’ve been built by scholars, bolstered by benefactors, and scaled up by the state.

The government is now trying to destroy them. The damage will be profound.

Brown University advises all international community members to postpone, reconsider travel One week before spring break, Brown advised international community members, including green card holders and permanent residents, to postpone international travel in a campus-wide email sent on Sunda...

Chilling report from Brown University.

Administration advises all foreign students, staff, and faculty to postpone or reconsider (ie cancel) international travel, due to federal government's crackdown on universities.

Brown also warns against *domestic travel* -since it's unclear what ICE will do.

What if - and hear me out on this - algorithms are a way of suppressing voices and ideas that oligarchs don't like?

It would be laughable...except that this paranoid fantasy is now the official White House take on higher ed, being weaponized to destroy research universities across the US.

One columnist, a professional pundit, is living in a paranoid delusion. The other, a sociologist, is living in America.

Trump Orders Gutting of 7 Agencies, Including Voice of America’s Parent The order targeting the agencies, largely obscure entities that address issues like labor mediation and homelessness prevention, appeared to test the bounds of the president’s power.

Do you value your library?

Trump just ordered the dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the key source of federal support for libraries.

Libraries are vital social infrastructure, the foundations of an open, democratic society. Gutting them means gutting our own communities.

Opinion | We Were Wrong About What Happened to America in 2020 (Published 2024) The answer, only now coming into view, explains why that awful year still has us in its grip.

We Were Wrong About What Happened to America in 2020.

Republicans insist the pandemic didn't happen. Democrats insist we move on. But Americans are still stuck in 2020. We're angry, distrustful, divided. Alone and abandoned. Solidarity is scarce.

Five years later, it's time for a reckoning.

Paperbacks! Just in time for the fifth anniversary, and still so much to learn. @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social @vintagebooks.bsky.social

Disasters speed up and make visible conditions that are always present but difficult to see.

Huge night here at NYU. An undergrad trying to fix their grade accidentally discovered how to email 11,000 instructors on a secret group email list, unifying the faculty like no one before. I have hundreds of email replies in my inbox. And apparently Onions, the puppy, has just been granted tenure.